Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

user112124

Member Since

August 31, 2023

Total number of comments

1

Total number of votes received

0

Bio

Latest Comments

“Defeat to”

  • August 31, 2023, 11:00pm

It has to be “defeated by” since the defeated party is the object. If you want to use “to” then it needs to be “lost to” because the losing party is the subject. Someone has mentioned “defeat against” but here the word “defeat” is a noun and not the past participle of a verb such as “defeated” so we would have something like “Manchester United suffered a defeat against Liverpool” which I think is OK, as would be the use of “by”.